Bali Nine: Executions may be delayed for months

AFTER rushing Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan to the penal island of Nusakambangan, Indonesian officials are now unable to confirm whether the Australians will be executed this month.

Barrister Julian McMahon and other lawyers took the ferry from Cilacap to "Indonesia's Alcatraz" on Friday morning with Australia's consul-general to Bali, Majell Hind.

They were swarmed by waiting media when they returned, but didn't comment about the Bali Nine pair, or negotiations for access for their families, who are also in Cilacap to visit their brothers and sons.

It's understood the men are being treated well, and they are in good spirits and looking forward to seeing their families on Monday.

They must be given at least 72 hours' notice of the executions, which means they can't be held this week.

Spokesman for the Attorney-General, Tony Spontana, could not confirm the men would face the firing squad this month.

"I can't confirm yet," he said.

After planning for weeks to execute 10 prisoners at once and keep them on Nusakambangan for as little time as possible, Attorney-General HM Prasetyo now won't say how many will go to the firing squad or when.

His stance on the legal appeals pending for some of the prisoners has softened, after weeks of arguing their clemency rejection was the end of the road, legally.

He added they were willing to wait for the second opinion on the mental health of Rodrigo Gularte, a Brazilian on death row who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.

Mr Spontana said Nusakambangan authorities would follow regulations, meaning the Sydney families must wait for Monday and Wednesday to visit, with no special arrangements until they entered the isolation period immediately before their execution.

Earlier on Friday, a small number of anti-drugs protesters burnt an effigy of a drug offender at the port, calling for the attorney-general to immediately order the executions.

The group called Granat also rejected foreign nations' "intervention" on behalf of their citizens and Australia's prisoner swap proposal.

Protester Slamet Mulyadi, holding a sign that said "go to hell criminal drugs", said it was Indonesia's right to execute felons.

"This is my country, this is an independent country, we must save my generation," he told reporters.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Friday lashed Bali police for posing with the condemned men in photos that turned up in Indonesian media, calling them "unbecoming".

"I thought that they showed a lack of respect and a lack of dignity and obviously we've already protested to the Indonesian ambassador here in Canberra," he said.

Mr Abbott is still seeking another phone call with President Joko Widodo regarding the plight of Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33.

The president, visiting East Java on Friday, brushed off Australia's growing outrage.